Virtualization vs Dual Booting

[srachit]

Hey guys!
I wanted some advice, I am looking to run a version of linux on my laptop, mostly Ubuntu. But I am unsure if I sure virtualize it through Virtual Box or dual boot my laptop. My main concern is that, mine isn't a great laptop, I mainly bought it because it was light, fast to boot and good enough for my programming needs.
My laptop specifications are:
4GB RAM
Intel i5
AMD Radeon HD 8750M graphics card

So would it be more advisable to virtualize it or dual boot it for a smoother and nicer experience?

[Jackolantern]

Dual boot. Even with great specs, a virtualized OS is not the same as a native booted OS. If you were going to dual boot with Windows, be sure to install Windows first, or else Windows will overwrite grub and you will lose the dual-booting mechanism. Windows doesn't play well with others in this respect.

[a_bertrand]

All depends what you want to do with your different OS. If it is just to test a few things, then a virtual OS is fine. Even if you develop some stuff on a second OS a virtual OS could do the trick. However if you expect to run all kind of things like games and more then, visualization is not the way to go.

[Jackolantern]

All depends what you want to do with your different OS. If it is just to test a few things, then a virtual OS is fine. Even if you develop some stuff on a second OS a virtual OS could do the trick. However if you expect to run all kind of things like games and more then, visualization is not the way to go.

Yeah, that is probably right. I can't really just give a blanket statement to always dual-boot. Like Allan said, if you are just wanting to test some things, like testing if a game will run on Linux, just virtualize it. But if you are aiming to really do any kind of serious work in the OS, dual-boot.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I am using VMWare on my Mac for running Windows and while it is nice to go from Mac to Windows in a push of a button Windows does not function properly. Visual Studio sucks, Intellisense is all screwed up, weird errors, ect..HOWEVER I do not want to have to restart to change back and forth so i deal with VMware.

Let me also say I want to kick this mac right through a window into a bottomless sea of watery tarts throwing swords at it.

[a_bertrand]

Did you tried to use http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

Usually Mac users uses that... and seems to be happy.

[Xaos]

With 4gigs of ram I'd say dual boot, you won't be able to send much memory to the virtual box.